Tag Archive: Detroit

Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit, has dropped all their charges against James Brown. Brown is believed to be involved with the murders of Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers, Natasha Curtis and Vernithea McCrary. Three of the women are believed to be prostitutes that were advertising on the Village Voice Media owned backpage.com.

With Wayne County dropping the charges, charges have been filed by nearby Macomb County. Previously investigators said that it was unknown where the murders actually took place. With these new charges being filed I would hazard a guess that they believe they took place in Macomb County.

I guess if Liz McDougall was quoted for this article she’d probably say how great it was that Backpage was able to help catch a killer.

Around last Christmas Detroit was rocked by two pairs of murders. This is Detroit we’re talking about so it takes a lot to shock them. On December 19th the bodies of cousins Demesha Hunt, 24, and Renisha Landers, 23, were found in the trunk of a car. Then on Christmas day the bodies of Natasha Curtis, 29, and Vernithea McCrary, 28, were found inside a burning car. Three of the four victims were prostitutes that advertised on the Village Voice Media owned backpage.com.

24-year-old James Brown of Sterling Heights, Michigan has been arrested in connection with the murders but has not yet been charged with the murders. Police say that’s because they believe the murders themselves may have taken place outside of Detroit.

Backpage actually tried claiming that they were ‘helpful’ in the investigation as soon as the murders occurred. What they should have done is admitted that their site was the directory a murderer used to find his victims. Unfortunately they have 27 million reasons not to do that.

Anyway last week prior to the new year police in Detroit named one of the women who were found in the trunk of a burning car.

Police say they have identified one of the victims as 28-year-old Vernithea McCrary. As of the time of this article police had not released the name of the other victim found with her but family members believe it is 28-year-old Natasha Curtis. Both women were found burned beyond recognition. A cause of death has yet to be announced.

As mentioned before Detroit police believe that three of the four victims, the others being Renesha Landers and Denesha Hunt, were prostitutes that advertised on the Village Voice Media owned backpage.com. Backpage, being the slimy weasels they are, are quick to point out that multiple websites were involved. That’s like the pitbull defenders who say wiener dogs maul just as many people.

You’re the top dog now Backpage and you’re foaming at the mouth while your handlers say what a good dog you are. It’s only a matter of time before you’ll have to be put down.

Backpage released a statement through one of their attorneys in reference to the recent murders in Detroit of Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers and two unnamed women. Three of the victims are believed to have been prostitutes that were advertised on the Village Voice Media owned backpage.com.

Here is the statement in its entirety…

“After we heard about these terrible crimes, we reached out to the Detroit Police Department, even before we heard from them, to offer assistance in the investigation. Our team has already provided the police with detailed information about the ads that the suspect or others posted on numerous web sites.

“Law enforcement authorities now have evidence that the investigation appears to connect to at least 30 different ads or other postings on at least 15 different websites, separate and distinct from ours. We are not aware of the existence of any evidence that would indicate which of these many sites were used by the suspect to establish contact with his victims.

“We have a team of more than 100 content monitors and internet experts who will continue to cooperate with the investigation and provide as much helpful information as we can.

“Backpage.com shares the concerns of law enforcement and the community that every effort be made to stop violent criminals from using the internet to commit their crimes.

Backpage has developed strong cooperative relationships with front-line state and federal police agencies nationwide, assisting with sting operations, promptly responding to subpoenas, and otherwise aiding in the identification, apprehension and prosecution of criminals.

“We do our best to provide a safe and legal environment for our customers through aggressive content monitoring and sophisticated content filtration software.

We agree with a recent USC study that recommended leveraging online technologies and datadriven information in real time to detect and apprehend online criminals.

Within the last week four murdered women were found in the trunks of cars in Detroit, 3 of them were reported to be escorts on the Village Voice Media owned backpage.com.

The bodies of cousins Demesha Hunt, 24, and Renisha Landers, 23, were found in the trunk of a car in December 19th. On early Christmas morning two more women were found burnt beyond recognition in the trunk of a burning car. Their names have not yet been released. It has also not been made public yet which of the three women had ads on backpage. The causes of death have also not been released. However police do believe that the incidents are connected.

Not surprisingly Village Voice Media has not yet responded to media requests for comment. I’ll save you all some time. VVM will say something to the effect that those these deaths are regrettable they are working with law enforcement. Then they’ll stick in something about how their thinly veiled prostitution ads are a first amendment right and that they’re ability to make money off the women and children that are trafficked on their site trumps the right for these women to not be murdered. Not necessarily in those words but you get the idea.

Will this new national attention on backpage get VVM to reconsider their stance on the adult ads on backpage? As long as their making money hand over fist I seriously doubt it.

For the umpteenth time we have another ‘craigslist killer’ and for the second time that I know of it has happened in the Detroit area.

19-year-old Jonathan Clements of Hazel Park, Michigan was shot and killed after posting a craigslist ad that said he wanted to purchase a new Android phone.

Clements was contacted by someone who he thought was a seller and arranged for them to come to his home but instead of purchasing the phone he was shot and killed and the suspects allegedly also took the $95 that Clements was going to use to purchase the phone.

Police have arrested 23-year-old Alexander D. Lyons of Detroit for being the alleged trigger man while his cohort, 19-year-old Lamar DeAngelo Clemons, was charged with being the getaway driver.

I can’t stress this enough that if you’re going to transact any business using a classifieds site never meet at yours or their place of residence. The best place to meet to make the transaction is in front of your local police station. If they don’t want to do business there than you’re better off not doing business at all.

Also I think this shows just how much craigslist attracts the criminal element.

A man from Shelby Township, Michigan is dead after responding to a craigslist ad for an ATV.

The man and a friend went to a house in Detroit after responding to an ad for an ATV. The ‘seller’ said he needed a ride to get the keys. While in transit the ‘seller’ shot both men killing one.

The suspect is still at large and the victim has not yet been named.

One of these days I’m going to tally the body count that craigslist has left in its wake and have sort of a memorial.

Don’t forget to tell your friends that craigslist is not only dangerous but they do nothing to protect their users. Let them know about this site to show them that craigslist isn’t the trustworthy hippy commune that everyone thinks it is.

And since this happened in Murder City don’t expect to see this in the national media.

13-year-olds are stupid. There, I said it. Come on, think about it. How stupid were you at 13. I would imagine pretty stupid. Teens think they know what love is by the age of 13 and will do the most idiotic things for it.

For example take this girl from Detroit. She met 19-year-old Donald Hunter on Facebook. Hunter was arrested recently for allegedly having sex with the girl. The girl went to the extreme of hiding Hunter in her closet so her mom wouldn’t find out. Mom did find out but more on that in a little bit.

Normally I harp on parents for not monitoring their kids internet activity but this mother did everything she possibly could to keep her daughter away from Hunter.

The girl’s mother heatedly explained today that she tried to stop the relationship after the pair met online last year and she thought the boy was just 15. She canceled her daughter’s Internet service, shut off the girl’s cell phone and pulled her out of one school for another.

Except it seems she met her match in a very headstrong, and stupid, 13-year-old girl. Now before you jump all over me I am not blaming this girl for what happened. Obviously Hunter is a predator who took advantage of a very naive and impressionable girl. But check out what the girl said after Hunter’s arrest…

“(I hope) I get blamed for it and he don’t go to jail,”

She’s too young and naive to know that she had been taken advantage of.

Now on to mom. Like I said she did all she could but her daughter was too determined and with the assistance of predator mom was outnumbered. However she found Hunter in her daughter’s closet and the 32-year-old mom detained this 19-year-old scumbag until police got there.

He’s going to be real popular in lockup. Not only is he a kid toucher but he was basically arrested by someone’s mom.

52-year-old Robert Nathaniel-Roosevelt Reeves II of Detroit, Michigan was arrested yesterday for trying to meet with a 14-year-old girl on MySpace. As you can guess the 14-year-old girl was actually an undercover Michigan Attorney General Special Agent.

Reeves sexual advances to the undercover agent became increasingly more aggressive and quickly led to Reeves soliciting and arranging a meeting with the undercover agent posing as the 14-year-old girl in a Novi parking lot. Reeves was immediately arrested when he appeared for the rendezvous by Attorney General Special Agents in Novi on Sunday, April 29, 2007.

Reeves is looking at two separate felony charges that both carry a 20 year sentence.